In vertebroplasty, the clinician or surgeon seeks to treat a compression fracture of a vertebra by injecting a curable bone cement such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) into the fracture. In a related procedure called kyphoplasty, the clinician or surgeon first inflates a balloon in the vertebra to create cavity, and then injects the curable bone cement into the cavity. Each procedure is considered to be a form of vertebral body augmentation (VBA).
In current vertebral body augmentation techniques, there are two instances in which fluoroscopy is used: balloon placement and cement injection.
When using a balloon to create a cavity in the vertebral body, the clinician first places the balloon in the vertebral body, expands it using saline, assesses the location and expansion of the balloon via fluoroscopy, adjusts the location and/or expansion of the balloon if needed, and then deflates and removes the balloon.
When performing cement injection, the clinician uses fluoroscopy for needle placement and for monitoring the injection of bone cement within the vertebral body. Using a simple syringe, the clinician is exposed to excessive x-ray radiation within a fluoro field produced by a fluoroscope.
It is well known that excessive exposure to x-ray radiation is dangerous and even cancer-causing.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the use of fluoroscopy from VBA procedures.